So, I am repainting Squier... I am curious as to how long I should allow the color coats to cure before wet sanding, and what grit I should use when I do, and what I need to know from a technique/prep stand point.

This is perplexing to me, this wet sanding thing. Do I need to put like 12 coats on this guitar, and let it sit for a month or something? I can't see how I'm not going to strip all the paint off when I do this, or at least put a ton of scratches in the paint.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

(sorry if this is in the wrong section)

You don't wet sand wood bro.....Please don't take it wrong.I am a painting contractor and not trying to put you down, only inform you.
Use a super fine sandpaper between coats 200-400 should be fine enough but you can use as fine as you want up to 600, but whatever you do DON'T wetsand wood.
Wood and water do not mix.You are only asking for trouble.To repaint I would do a couple of nice coats of primer followed by as many coats of finish as you think look good.You need to decide what kind of finish you would like.If your gonna color it go with a nice colored lacquer and top coat with clear.If your going natural finish than decide if you want a lacquer(nitro) finish or a polyeurethane finish.Either way you will need a primer for color or sanding sealer for clear finish to start with.There are many people on this board that can help...just ask specific questions and we will help what we can
Good luck

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1986 Fender Sidekick Reverb 35
1990 Fender Red Knob - "The Twin"
1992 Fender Newporter - Acoustic
2000 Fender American Series Strat - Natural ash
2010 Fender Mustang 1
2011 Fender Blacktop Jazzmaster -Sunburst
2012 Fender Champion

i dont see where he's talking about wet sanding wood? from what i read, he's trying to avoid it..

Looks like you're talking about wet sanding between coats of whatever finish you are putting on, but I agree with scarleg, albeit for different reasons - you don't need to wet sand. Just go with a very fine paper between coats and you should be fine. Once you get a few coats on you won't have to be so careful between coats.

You don't mention what type of finish you are using, what paint? But once you get a good paint coat on, you should change over to a compatible clear finish and get at least a few thin costs of clear on the guitar.





These are a couple of pics of my son's Jazz bass that he pretty much ruined by trying to make a camo finish. Once I got it away from him, I sanded it all down, clear-coated it two coats, then put on six coats of tinted lacquer. It's not the same color it was at the beginning, but he was pretty happy just to see it look pretty again.

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Dennis in CR
Rockin' since 1963

sounds like you bit off more than you can chew.
stop what your doing and research what your doing.

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

Hi CINematix: hmmm - let's address the actual questions being asked.



This depends on the type of finish you are using. If it's nitrocellulose then you need to leave it a good four weeks, and more would be better. That's because nitro cures by solvents evaporating from the surface and that happens very slowly - in fact, it is still hardening for months after it's applied. The more coats of paint, the longer the process will take. So when you're done spraying hang it up from a neck bolt hole so that there is no contact anywhere on the surface and leave it for a month or more.

Like this (kindly ignore my little message to Forum user Orvilleowner - there's a story to that which we won't bother with here...):



However, if you are using a plastic based finish such as polyester, polyurethane or automotive acrylic lacquer from a car shop then cure times can be much less. That's because they don't dry as such by evaporation but harden by polymerisation - a one-way chemical change. This happens reasonably quickly and in the automotive world where they can speed things up with UV curing methods they can be working on those lacquers in a matter of hours. You on the other hand should leave a plastic based coat for days or better still a few weeks to harden as much as possible before wet sanding.

It's a waiting game. Be patient.


Again, it depends on your materials, whether you want a solid, transparent or metallic finish, and also especially on how good your prepping is. If you prep that body utterly smooth before beginning then fewer coats are needed to get a glass smooth final surface.

We can say plenty more about that, but really it would be best to wait till you tell us what type of finish you are doing - materials and color.

Meantime:

OK, it sounds to me like there is in fact a ton of stuff you need to know before getting to the wet-sanding stage. But while we're waiting for the earlier questions to be answered, here's Ceri's abbreviated guide to wet-sanding.

You need wet-and-dry paper, at the very least grades P1000, P1500 and P2000. You can't always find P2500 in the shops, but if you can get it, do.

Soak the paper overnight in water with some dish washing liquid added. When you're ready to start prepare a new bowl of warm water with dish cleaning liquid in it - it helps lubricate things and stop the paper from clogging. Work beside a tap and rinse your paper constantly. You will also need a cork sanding block and plenty of kitchen roll to wipe the body down with as you go.

Here's the back of a guitar at the beginning of wet sanding. You can see the soapy wet-and-dry paper on the cork block:



Keep going all over the body until it is uniformly matte in appearance. The spring cavity in this next picture shows what the paint was like before sanding began, for comparison. You will use the paper just held in your fingers for the edges and the transitions to the front and back contours. If you try and keep it on the block in these places you will sand through the lacquer and have to start spraying all over again.

Continue till the whole body is matte like this, then stop. It will take half an hour or so. You can keep wiping it dry with kitchen paper to see where you've got to. Don't give up on the P1000 paper till you've got to this stage - the job will just take longer in the end if you do:



Once you've got the whole thing uniformly matte you dry it off and then move on to the next grade of paper. Here is the front of that same body at the end of P1000:



And here it is after P1500:



And here after P2000:



And here it is after P2500:



Assuming you don't have fancy things like a buffing wheel and polishing compounds the final stage is also done by hand. You will need a dry lint free cloth and some very mildly abrasive polish. You can use household metal polish or silver polish or automotive swirl remover. Even toothpaste will do (true). You just buff away at the surface till you have produced the glass smooth shiny finish we want to see on guitars:







And all slapped together it looked like this:







I suspect there's more you need to know about the earlier stages of prepping and spraying. Tell us what lacquer you are using and what finish you are aiming for and we'll take it from there.

Cheers - C

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Thank you! My first ever steam bent "drop top". Didn't know I could make it work, so I used a very plain piece of front timber for fear of wrecking it. Now I know I can do it I'll do a much fancier one next time!

Cheers - C

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Sorry that I didn't supply more information from the beginning...

I wanted something close to Daphne Blue, so I picked up this Krylon indoor/outdoor spray paint that is virtually the same exact color. At this stage, I have already sanded down the body (2 days worth), put about 3 coats of primer on (which was easy to sand down and get smooth), and have since applied about 5 coats of this "Peekaboo Blue" color on the guitar. It's now been hanging in the garage for a day untouched. It doesn't look terrible, but it does have that orange peal effect going on, and there are a few tiny bumps here and there.

The texture of the actual paint is nowhere near as gritty as the primer was, so I just have a feeling that the moment I go to sand this thing down, all that paint is going to come off.

As far as wet sanding, yes I intend to wet sand this guitar, as every professional looking job I have seen included wet sanding at some point. If there is a way around that, I'd be all for it, but I just haven't seen it.

As far as my goal...I am doing one of those "relic" projects, so essentially I need the guitar to look excellent, before I ruin it again. I want it to have more of a dull finish in most places, but I don't want the paint to look terrible either.

Thank you for the excellent information Ceri.

+1

Every now and then you'll come across a mind blowing-ly cool post... And that be be one of them. What a blinder! Makes me want to have another go a nice posh nitro finish.

Good Stuff!

Andy

BTW: Isn't the E string a bit high on your Strat there Ceri, old bean?...

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Pending Greatness

Wow!! lots of good info from different people.I have sprayed thousands of gallons of nitrocellulose and poly on all kinds of wood and cabinitery for some very famous homeowners and I am talking jobs that cost $50,000.00 to $100,000.00 and have never wetsanded wood before.I guess there is a madness to everything

_________________
1986 Fender Sidekick Reverb 35
1990 Fender Red Knob - "The Twin"
1992 Fender Newporter - Acoustic
2000 Fender American Series Strat - Natural ash
2010 Fender Mustang 1
2011 Fender Blacktop Jazzmaster -Sunburst
2012 Fender Champion

Hi scarleg: I read your earlier post too. Erm - you get that nobody here is talking about wet-sanding wood, do you?

If you're involved in these processes then more information on how they relate to musical instruments is to be found in Guitar Finishing Step-by-Step, the bible on the subject:

http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Finishing- ... 145&sr=8-1

The "madness" is very well attested, I promise.

That book is highly recommended for anyone interested in guitar finishing. Ultimately, more useful than trying to learn this stuff from an internet forum...

Cheers - C

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lol.

Yea, I'd have to agree that wet sanding wood would kinda pointless.

Oh, and books are terrible. You can't steal them on the internet by illegally downloading them!

Hi C,
The guitar body is wood right? I understand he wasn't sanding raw wood, but rather sealed wood and between coats.Whether or not the wood was sealed properly to wetsand between coats is a whole different animal.Some people may think that you just grab a piece of sandpaper and a bucket of water and go to town on the body of the guitar.I was only trying to let him know that it is not really necessary to go about it that way and there is a proper way to do it.I guess I should of explained that a little better.I personally have never had to use a wetsanding technique,especially with lacquer as it kind of melts back into itself so to say.I will definitely check out that book you recommended ,it looks like a great informative read.Thanks C, and I always dig on your posts bro...very informative:D


If you're involved in these processes then more information on how they relate to musical instruments is to be found in Guitar Finishing Step-by-Step, the bible on the subject:

http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Finishing- ... 145&sr=8-1

The "madness" is very well attested, I promise.

That book is highly recommended for anyone interested in guitar finishing. Ultimately, more useful than trying to learn this stuff from an internet forum...

Cheers - C[/quote]

_________________
1986 Fender Sidekick Reverb 35
1990 Fender Red Knob - "The Twin"
1992 Fender Newporter - Acoustic
2000 Fender American Series Strat - Natural ash
2010 Fender Mustang 1
2011 Fender Blacktop Jazzmaster -Sunburst
2012 Fender Champion